


My Best Friend's Girl

by SunnySinclair



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: DCU/MCU crossover, F/M, Post-Flashpoint (DCU)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 21:05:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16840402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunnySinclair/pseuds/SunnySinclair
Summary: Barry discovers more has changed following Flashpoint than he'd originally realised. Cisco's girlfriend, Darcy Lewis, had disappeared from their lives too. And Barry can't leave it alone.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a dear friend of mine about our two roleplay muses, so let me know if some things need some additional exposition to make sense. I haven't seen past the end of season 3 of The Flash, or same of AoS so anything that goes against things that came in later seasons...oh well.

_My name is Barry Allen. And I am the fastest man alive. To the outside world, I’m an ordinary forensic scientist. But secretly, with the help of my friends at S.T.A.R. Labs, I fight crime and find other metahumans like me. After defeating Zoom and saving the multiverse, I ran back in time and created the alternate timeline “Flashpoint”. I restored the timeline to how it was, only to find things weren’t as I left them. I brought new threats to our world, and I’m the only one fast enough to stop them. I am the Flash._

It was a relief when Gypsy disappeared back through the breach to her own Earth, leaving HR safely in their hands. But there was something about the whole interaction that had Barry unsettled. Or, more precisely, the whole interaction between Cisco and Gypsy.

Because Cisco had been flirting. And not even a little bit subtly. Which didn’t at all tee-up with the Cisco he knew, because there was no way that guy would ever even entertain the thought of cheating on his girlfriend.

“Hey, Caitlin,” he asked, turning his back so the room at large wouldn’t notice. “Uh, do we know a Darcy? Anyone, here, I mean.” He gestured a finger around the room. “Darcy Lewis?”

Caitlin looked at him oddly and had just opened her mouth when an arm slung itself across his shoulders.

“Darcy? Who’s Darcy? That’s a weird name, Darcy. Got a bit of a romantic vibe though. Not that we wanna go getting all Austen, am I right?”

Barry groaned at HR’s cheerful – and loud – chatter. Everyone’s attention had switched their way and Barry tried to smile and shrug it off. “Nothing, no one. Darcy is… No one.”

“Uh uh,” Cisco interrupted. “This is a Flashpoint thing isn’t it?” Trust Cisco’s genius to come through and pick up exactly what Barry was trying not to say.

“Um, yeah,” Barry admitted. “But, y’know, you guys don’t want to know about that other life, and she’s not around now, so,” he waved them all away. “Not important.”

If only Team Flash worked that way. But they didn’t. Every time a secret or a mystery was dangled, everyone was on board to get to the bottom of it. And Barry really hated it when he was at the epicentre of that.

“Oh ho ho! Her?” HR said, twirling his drumsticks and grinning. “Man, that is too bad, ‘cause you know, I love having the ladies around.” He gave a spirited bow to Iris and Caitlin. “More ladies, always better with more ladies.”

“Stop,” Cisco interrupted, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You-just – you stop talking now,” he pointed at HR. “And you start.” The finger moved to Barry. He hedged, trying to work out how to get out of confessing.

Because his and Cisco’s friendship was just starting to get back on track. Dante’s death was still a fresh wound and the last thing Barry wanted to do was add salt to it, and he was pretty sure Cisco finding out he’d erased his girlfriend by meddling with time was going to be like tossing him in the Dead Sea.

As Barry tripped over his tongue trying to keep that state of affairs to himself, the alarm started going off.

“Oh thank god,” Barry muttered, as everyone else jumped into action.

“Armed robbery at Central Bank, hostages taken,” Cisco reported, his fingers flying over the keys as he brought up the available information.

The wind whipped as Barry grabbed his suit, sending Cisco’s hair flying around his face.

“We’re not done talking about this Darcy thing!” He shouted after the Flash, but Barry was already long gone.

It took a few days before there was a period of enough quiet for Cisco and Caitlin to force Barry to sit still and talk to them. Not that Barry was at all willing, but they’d shut down the audio on the alarm outside the lab and had Wally standing by, ready to take control of any situations that popped up. So there wasn’t any excuse Barry could give that would make them let him go. Not even excuses about Iris and Savitar and not having time.

“So, talk,” Cisco started, crossing his arms and looming over Barry, before Caitlin gave him a look. With a loud huff he dropped into a seat.

“You guys said you didn’t want to know,” Barry tried, but Cisco cut him off with a swipe of his hand.

“No, nope, not happening. You opened the can, buddy, gotta let the worms out now. ‘Cause I’ve been thinking. It’s been a couple of months since you redid your timeline redo, so why bring this girl up now, out of nowhere? And I can only figure it’s got something to do with Gypsy showing up.”

“Or you flirting with Gypsy,” Caitlin muttered, eyes going wide when they both looked at her. “What? He’s right, Barry. You asked about her like you’d only just remembered she existed. And Cisco had been getting all,” she made a bit of a face, “with Gypsy, so it’s not exactly a leap of logic to think there is-was some kind of romantic link between him and this Darcy.”

Sighing heavily, Barry leaned forward, elbows on his knees. He stared at the floor, hands going to the back of his neck before sitting up again. “Ok,” he agreed. “You’re right. Darcy was Cisco’s girlfriend in the timeline before Flashpoint.”

“I knew it!” Cisco fist pumped, before the reality of what had been said sunk in. “So I had a girlfriend. Like…what kind of girlfriend?”

“Uh, you guys were pretty hot and heavy,” Barry said, turning slightly pink.

“So what could she do?” Cisco asked, face blank.

“What?”

“Well, Cisco only seems to fall for the dangerous types who’d kick his ass,” Caitlin interjected with a frown. “So we’d assume she was…like that…Or meta. Or both.”

Barry laughed - he couldn’t help it. “No, actually,” he said with a shake of his head. “I mean, yes, she could kick your ass if she wanted to, but she wasn’t anything like Gypsy, or Golden Glider. She was…” He paused and smiled fondly at the memories. “Nice. She was nice, mostly.”

“Nice,” Cisco drawled. “Man, now I think you’re just making stuff up.”

“I’m not!” Barry insisted. “She’s nice, and totally competent.”

“What’s that meant to mean?” Caitlin asked. “Competent?”

“Do you really want me to get into all this?” Barry asked. Part of him really hoped they’d say no, that they could walk away and leave it as is. Another part was kind of glad to be able to talk about something from the old life, something that wasn’t hard or cruel or imperative to his friends survival.

“Can. Worms. Opened.” Cisco fixed him with a hard stare. “Talk.”

“She was an aide in the mayor’s office,” he started, getting the bare facts out before mentioning the things that were really going to make Cisco hate him with renewed energy. “Girl loved to debate, and don’t get me started on what she was like around the election. If she’d had powers I’m pretty sure the City would’ve been toast, she was so pissed.”

“Pissed? Why? She doesn’t like President Clinton?” Caitlin asked, surprised.

“What? Clinton?” Barry felt like he’d missed something very important.

“Clinton won the election. Please do not tell me I was dating a Trump supporter,” Cisco hissed. “Because that right there, that’d be a deal breaker.”

“Oh man,” Barry let out a breath. “Wow. This timeline just suddenly got a whole lot better.”

Cisco and Caitlin exchanged a look before Barry continued. “Before Flashpoint, Trump won.” The pair of them let out noises of shock and horror. “No way,” Cisco shook his head. “Never happen.”

“It did. And Darcy was so pissed.”

“Damn straight! The whole world shoulda been pissed. Did he rig the election? ‘Cause there’s no way he could’ve legit gotten in.” Cisco was fuming, whilst Caitlin had gone even paler than usual.

“I mean, there’s allegations,” Barry shrugged.

“Wow,” Cisco muttered, sinking back into his chair. “That’s almost enough to make me glad you messed with us.” Saying that, Cisco’s face stiffened as memories of what he’d lost hurdled over the positives. “Almost. So, Darcy, what else was she like? Because into politics and arguing isn’t sounding that great.”

“She, uh…. She knew Thor,” Barry said.

“Thor?” Caitlin jumped in. “The actual god of thunder, member of the Avengers, that Thor? You’re joking.”

“I’m not. She didn’t talk about it a lot, but she was there when he came to Earth.”

“So, she knew Thor. Big deal, God, whatever,” Cisco said, playing it off. “It’s not like she was hanging out with the rest of the Avengers.”

Barry couldn’t help a chuckle. “Yeah, no, she wasn’t hanging out with them. But she did Tony Stark to facetime you for your birthday last year.”

Cisco’s mouth hung open at that. He tried, several times, to speak before any sound actually made it out.

“So help me, Barry, I’m gonna strangle you! Tony Stark? Actual Iron Man, knew who I was and talked to me and everything?”

Whilst Cisco sat there fuming, Caitlin tried to get the conversation back on track. “So, she was part of our team then? I mean, being close to those other superheroes, she’d have had some fascinating insights into how a team of heroes runs.”

“Actually, no,” Barry shook his head. “We didn’t - any of us - know about the whole Thor thing until after Cisco told her about Team Flash. I dunno how that went exactly, but she did say she’d had enough of superhero shenanigans for her life. She kind of appointed herself Hero Support, but didn’t come around here too much.”

“Hero support? What’s hero support? Aren’t we hero support?” Cisco asked.

“Sure, yeah, well, no, you guys are totally heroes too. But, uh, her version mostly tended to involve cupcakes?” He said, scratching at the back of his neck. “She’d show up every once in a while with cupcakes, tell us all to take a day off. And a couple of times she turned one of the spare labs into a giant pillow fort and made us all go down there to watch movies.”

Cisco had laced his fingers together and had his hands over his mouth. His eyes were closed, until he fixed Barry with a very potent evil eye.

“So let me get this straight?” He said, lowering his hands. “I had a girlfriend, who was super into me, who was cool with all this stuff but didn’t want to be involved. And she’d bring around cupcakes and get Iron Man to talk to me for my birthday? You’re telling me I had a woman like that in love with me, and now it’s all gone?”

The evil eye was back and Caitlin sat up, noticing the shift in energy. Cisco pushed to his feet, and without warning sent a blast of Vibe energy at Barry, sending him literally head over heels as the chair toppled over.

“I am very pissed at you right now,” he said, pointing a finger at Barry on the floor. “Very pissed. Super pissed. I can’t even!” He threw his hands in the air before stalking out of the room.

“He’ll get over it,” Caitlin said with a sympathetic smile as she helped Barry to his feet. “I hope,” she tacked on. Barry grimaced and rubbed at his back.

“Well, at least he’s not giving me the silent treatment.”


	2. Chapter 2

“So,” HR started, twiddling an ever-present drumstick around between his fingers. “I had an idea.”

Barry paused in his reading, the fluttering of pages coming to a stop. “Ok?”

“Yeah,” HR continued on, like there wasn’t any reservation to Barry’s tone. Or in his eyes. “We should find that girl you were talking about. Darcy? Yeah, we should find her for Cisco, maybe give them a little nudge nudge wink wink, whaddya say?”

“That…why would we do that?”

“What? Come on man, for love!”

“Cisco’s interested in Gypsy.”

“Fair enough,” HR nodded, his drumstick twirling. “Gypsy is a beautiful woman. And completely terrifying. But there’s a whole lotta rules about dimension hopping that definitely get in the way of their epic romance waiting to happen. It’s a great plot for my book, actually, all that pining youthful romance, but this is real life Barry! Don’t you wanna see San Fran-Cisco happy?”

Barry’s brow had furrowed as HR went on. The man had a point. Not necessarily about tracking down the Darcy Lewis from this timeline, but that, as much as Cisco and Gypsy might be something waiting to happen, there were a lot of hardships standing in their way.

“I don’t know,” Barry said slowly.

“Aw come on!” HR coaxed. “They were happy before Flashpoint right? Really happy. He deserves at least another shot at that cupcakes and Iron Man kind of happy..”

HR walked backwards, pointing his drumstick at Barry, that easy grin coupled with a pointedly raised eyebrow. “Think about it,” he said before exiting.

There were a few seconds where Barry did exactly that, before his head shot up.

“Wait! How do you know that stuff?”

***

Despite the perplexing question of how HR had heard the things Barry had told Cisco, Barry did think about what he’d said. In between battles and the gnawing fear of how to save Iris, in those few snatched moments, he thought about what it would be like to have that Cisco around again. The one who’d always had a quip on his tongue and a ready smile for anyone, who spent as much time being (willingly) dragged away from his lab by his laughing girlfriend as he did working on projects in it.

Despite the knowledge he had no right to, Barry missed that Cisco.

But Savitar was a threat, and Caitlin was lost to Killer Frost, and there’d even been a freaking alien invasion. And then Savitar was gone, but so was HR, and Caitlin wasn’t Killer Frost or Caitlin anymore, and Julian couldn’t handle the whole Flash thing without her so he stopped coming by STAR Labs or helping them with their work. Or talking to Barry unless absolutely necessary.

And even if Barry was ecstatic to have Iris safe from an impending murder, even that wasn’t enough to counteract the sadness that had crept in.

Barry hadn’t seen Cisco smile in weeks. And maybe it was in HR’s memory or maybe he just needed to do something to feel like less of a failure to all his friends, but Barry found himself looking up one Darcy Lewis.

It wasn’t so hard to find - there was a Facebook account that had been very active, once, and Barry couldn’t help going through the photos with her familiar face smiling at the camera. It was all wrong though, men who weren’t Cisco with arms wrapped around her, people he’d never seen crowding the frame. No Jane, no Stark. One lone picture of Thor. And without warning they ceased, all activity on the account just stopped three years earlier.

Before Flashpoint, it had just being going on four since she’d moved to Central City. Obviously that didn’t happen, but what did… Her social media wasn’t giving it up.

It was made that much harder by the fact that Barry couldn’t go to Cisco for help. He was the one who’d usually do all this kind of thing, but Barry really didn’t know how he’d take the information that Barry was searching for Darcy.

It all became a moot point, really, a week later. Barry had just shut down his latest search on Darcy Lewis when a conversation window popped up on his screen.

_Why are you looking for Darcy Lewis?_

Barry started and stared.

“How the…” he muttered, before grimacing to himself. Something shady, obviously. Who else was going to be monitoring his searches. Or searches about Darcy. Not for the first time Barry felt the welling up of guilt over his actions, wondering what had changed because of his meddling that had Darcy caught up in… Whatever this was she was caught up in.

 _It’s a long story_ he wrote back, watching the blinking cursor. It only took a few seconds before a new message appeared.

_Barry Allen, aka The Flash, saviour of Central City and scourge of ‘meta-humans’ everywhere. Of course it’s a long story. Good thing I’ve got time._

Of all the things Barry expected, that was not one of them. His fingers tapped at the keys without actually typing anything, having no idea how to respond. His identity was secret, at least he thought it was, but somewhere out there someone had it. Someone he hadn’t given it too.

The cursor blinked for another minute as he raced to work out how to respond.

 _Come on, you’re not actually surprised you got figured out are you?_ Appeared on the screen _. Flash comes and goes from Star Labs. You come and go from Star Labs. Add a little body matching and voice recognition software to basic logic and it’s pretty easy to work out._

Barry stared at the blinking cursor, feeling incredibly stupid as it was laid out in barely a handful of words. Whoever was at the other end wasn’t done though.

_Not to mention your friends, your fiance, and your foster dad are in and out all the time. And your coworker, recently. You’d have a way better cover if you had friends and family outside of your team._

Barry really really wished Cisco was here to deal with this, because he’d have some witty retort. Or be working on backtracking the IP of his mysterious conversation partner so they could figure out their identity in return, because Barry was feeling really wrong-footed over just how much insight this person had on him.

_You know for a guy with superspeed you’re super slow at replying._

Barry snorted before shaking his head. Was this whole conversation concerning? Absolutely. But he was going to get answers too, one way or another, which would at least make it worth something.

_Darcy was a friend of mine. Or she used to be. It’s complicated._

_The ex-boyfriend kind of complicated, or the spandex-wearing kind of complicated?_

_I don’t wear spandex!_ Barry glared at the screen, feeling like he was being played with.

 _Sure you don’t_ appeared, followed by a winky face. _At least you’ve got the butt for it._

Barry had experienced a lot of thing in his life. Too many things. And yet none of those things had thrown him for quite the loop as having some unknown hacker contact him over a woman he’d never even met (technically, in this timeline), and then have the conversation turn to complimenting his derriere.

_Can we talk about Darcy please? I need to find her. Or I need to find her for a friend of mine._

_What are you, playing creepy internet-stalking matchmaker?_ A pause. _Actually don’t answer that, creepy internet-stalking is how most matchmaking works these days._

It’s kind of hard to internet-stalk someone who hasn’t updated any social media in three years.

_Depends what they’ve been doing._

_So what’s Darcy been doing?_

_Ooh, strikeout Flash, I’m afraid that’s classified._

Classified. Now that was interesting. It could just mean secret, of course, the someone at the other end of the connection playing games. Or it could genuinely mean classified.

Either way, it was a start.

_Classified? Good thing I know a few people who go above things like classified._

_It’s cute you think you have that kind of power. We’ll chat again soon, Flash._

The cursor blinked several times, and then without warning they disconnected.

***

Barry didn’t say anything to anybody about his odd conversation, although he wanted to. There was a chance they were all in danger because of his actions, looking for Darcy Lewis. But the vibe he’d gotten from whoever was on the other side that night wasn’t menacing. If anything, it had come across more like they were playing a game with him.

Not that that was any less dangerous. The ones who played games with other people like that were often the most destructive.

“What’s up with you?” Cisco’s voice snapped through his thoughts and Barry jerked, hard enough he almost toppled over in his seat. Only his speed saved him, and in less than half a second he was on his feet, the chair spinning from the force he’d used to right it.

“Me? Uh, nothing,” Barry said, smoothing the tails of his shirt down. “I am all good. So good. Great, actually.”

Cisco stared and Barry tried to give a jaunty smile.

“Yeah, no, I’m not buying what you’re selling.” Cisco’s arms crossed and he levelled Barry with his most unimpressed stare.

“Hey, ah, how, how’s Gypsy?” Barry asked, trying to divert.

Cisco wasn’t buying it for a second.

“She’s fine. Or I figure she is. Haven’t seen her in a couple of weeks, but you know how it is with those cross-dimensional relationships.”

“Yeah, right, of course.” Barry gave a strained chuckle. “Can’t, uh, that can’t make things easy.” Cisco was narrowing his eyes and Barry had to hold back from actually facepalming. Why the hell had he brought up Gypsy? Because he was thinking about Cisco and his love life, that’s why, but given what he was trying to do reminders of the other woman weren’t going to be helpful.

Then again, Barry was starting to think this whole thing wasn’t going to be helpful, in HR’s memory or not.

Floundering, Barry rubbed at the back of his head, trying to look like he wasn’t intimidated by Cisco’s stare (and failing miserably), when the alarm started going off.

“Oh thank Christ,” Barry muttered under his breath before zipping over to the main console, Cisco catching up a few seconds later.

“Who the hell is that?” Cisco asked, punching the footage from the front door security cam to the larger screen.

“I have no idea,” Barry said slowly. The man was as nondescript as possible, whilst managing to look like he was from Men in Black at the same time. His suit was plain, but well tailored, and he was wearing sunglasses, but he was smiling blandly with his hands neatly folded in front of his body.

“Mr Allen. I believe we need to have a talk.” The voice came through the speakers and Barry shared a look of shock with Cisco. Somehow he was pretty sure Cisco was feeling it worse than him though.

“Scanning him now,” Cisco said, and when Barry shot him an incredulous look Cisco grinned. “What, you think I’ve just been sitting around? Way too many people show up at that door these days, figure we should know what we’re dealing with before they actually get in the building.”  
Because they always did manage to get in, uninvited, one way or another.

“He’s armed,” Cisco reported. “Two guns. And…” He paused, studying the screen. “And has a super high-tech prosthetic hand. Dude.”

“You think he’s dangerous?”

“Probably. Guy’s basically screaming ‘check out my secret agent swag’.”

Decision made, Cisco’s hair flew across his face as Barry disappeared.

“Come on man,” Cisco grumbled, righting his locks. “Least wait for me to get my gear,” he grumbled under his breath as he pulled out a few gadgets and strapped them on, then took off for the front of the labs.


	3. Chapter 3

How exactly secret agent man (“Coulson, Phil Coulson. I’m with SHIELD”) had talked them into getting into his car and being taken outside the city Barry wasn’t really sure. Although the looks Cisco was sending him after the name Darcy Lewis was mentioned probably had something to do with.

Cisco was sitting next to him, staring out the window and refusing to speak. Coulson carried on some conversation, saying it was impressive how The Flash was handling the seemingly constant appearance of new hostiles in his city. Barry gave awkward smiles and noises of thanks, but that was about all he could manage.

Give him oversized shark men or enemy speedsters, he knew how to handle those. Bland faced secret agents - he was way out of his depth.

The car, driven by a silent asian woman who’d barely glanced at them in the rearview mirror when they’d climbed in, pulled into a deserted field a few miles from the edges of the city.

“Well this looks hospitable,” Cisco muttered, glancing around the desolate area.

Phil just gave that bland smile and climbed out, waiting by the door in a clear expectation they were to do the same. Cisco and Barry shared a look before Cisco sighed.

“If they kill us I’m so going to figure out how to come back just so I can kill you again.”

“Like they even could,” Barry grinned, and a bit of his tension eased when Cisco, after a moment of side-eyeing him, gave a twitch of a smile back.

“Team Flash right?”

“Team Flash.” Cisco held up his fist which Barry happily bumped before they got out of the car.

A light breeze blew by, ruffling hair and sending overgrown grass swaying. There was practically nothing to see but the city in one direction and a scattering of farmhouses miles away in the other.

“So…what’s the deal?” Cisco asked after the silence stretched out.

Like he’d been waiting for the question, just to make it more dramatic, Phil turned to the woman who’d driven them. “May?”

Wordlessly, she put her finger to her ear. A second later there was a shimmering of air and quite suddenly a plane - a very large plane - was sitting in the open field.

“Holy…” Cisco whispered, his mouth hanging open. “What kind of tech is that? Teleporter or invisibility?”

“I’m sure our engineer would be more than happy to discuss it with you, Mr Ramone, but sharing technology isn’t why we’re here.”

As if on cue (and Barry was starting to think this guy really liked his dramatic effects and it was definitely done on purpose), the cargo hatch opened up. May climbed back in the car and the others followed on foot as she drove it into the hold of the plane.

A woman was standing several steps up on a short spiral staircase, leaning nonchalantly against the support with her arms crossed.

“So, this him?” She asked and Barry’s head whipped around.

“Darcy!”

Her eyes widened for a moment before her arms slipped free and she made her way down the last of the stairs. “Yeah, I am. But why the hell do you know that?”

“That’s exactly what we’re all here to work out, Agent Lewis,” Phil interjected. “But perhaps we can talk it over in the conference room instead of the hold?”

Darcy made a face, but she dutifully spun on her heel and bounded up the stairs, exhibiting far more energy than Barry had ever seen her. At least seen her sober. Drunk Darcy had been nothing but energy. And cuddles. And inappropriately groping Cisco at every given opportunity.

Speaking of Cisco… Barry looked back to see Cisco watching Darcy go. It wasn’t with awe, or anything even remotely like the dopey smile Barry had gotten so used to. There was interest there, but whether it was in Darcy herself or just the whole situation Barry couldn’t tell.

They climbed the stairs and Barry had to stop his eyes from bugging out. He knew James Bond got all the fancy gear, but he didn’t think that extended to actual real life secret agents. Certainly nothing he’d seen of A.R.G.U.S had suggested they had their teams travelling around in something as cushy as this.

There was a bar for crying out loud. An actual bar. On the secret spy plane.

Thankfully they didn’t get the chance to see much more than that. Phil ushered them into a glassed in room, and when he closed the door the glass all shifted to a muted grey.

Cisco was staring around with that look in his eye, the one that said there was no way he was leaving without figuring out how it worked.

Darcy was staring at Barry from where she’d already thrown herself into a seat at the far end of the table. Her eyes kept flicking over to Cisco though, and Barry didn’t think he was reading the interest in her gaze wrong.

“So,” she started, breaking the silence. “Let’s break the situation down right? You know me, but I’ve never met you before in my life. And you just decided a couple of weeks ago to start digging into all my biz looking for me, except hey-ho whaddya know, super secret spy agencies aren’t really keen on their people being all up in the social media. So now I got dragged away from Stark’s Tower of Overcompensation - which, fyi, nothing to do with his dick - and he’s totally throwing a pizza party tonight and now I don’t get to be there.”

Coulson, ever of the bland face, had actually put a hand to his face as Darcy rattled on at a mile a minute.

And Barry really didn’t want to know how she knew Stark wasn’t…that.

(He really did want to, actually, because even knowing Darcy just a little, or at least the Darcy he’d known, saying something like that was going to be truthful and completely intended to be taken the wrong way.)

“Thank you, Agent Lewis, I do believe that sums up the core of the matter,” Phil sighed, gesturing for Barry and Cisco to take seats as he sat himself. “I believe we all need an explanation for how Mr Allen knows you, though, and how complicated his story is.”

“You saw that conversation huh?” Barry asked.

Phil just fixed him with a look that said of course I did, what else would you expect?

“Darcy was good enough to pass me a transcript after she’d spoken with you.”

“Wait, that was you online?” Barry accused.

“Duh,” Darcy rolled her eyes. “Some guy starts googling me and stalking my Facebook, like hell I’m not gonna ask what’s what.”

“I didn’t know you could do that. The hacking stuff.”

“I’m just full of surprises.”

Barry grimaced and slumped in his char, wondering what the hell he’d caused, what he’d done, to wind up in this situation.

“Tell them, Barry,” Cisco said, leaning his elbows on the table. “Tell them all the Flashpoint stuff and how you had to go cyberstalking trying to find her because she was my girlfriend in another life.”

There was a yelp as Darcy fell off her seat.

“Wait, hold up,” she cried out, clambering back to her feet. “Girlfriend? Your girlfriend?” She was eyeing Cisco hard. “I call bull!”

“Hey, don’t blame me for it!” Cisco threw back, glowering at her and Darcy gave a blink.

“Shit, dude, no, wasn’t trying to piss you off. You’re just, like, super cute and have awesome hair, and, seriously, this is a compliment not an insult, but you look like a giant nerd.”

Cisco’s expression wavered, genuinely unsure whether he should be flattered or pissed, but Darcy continued before he had a chance to decide. “And cute nerdy guys so do not go for me.” Her nose scrunched up in distaste. “Usually the gross jocks are scaring ‘em off ‘cause they think my boobs are somehow their property. Assholes.”

Phil looked like he was going to interject, to maybe get them back on track, but Cisco was staring at Darcy now and there was just a hint of that awe that he’d had before Flashpoint back.

And suddenly his expression shifted and he smiled at her, that same kind of smile he’d been aiming at Gypsy a couple of weeks earlier.

“Well, in that case, hi, I’m Cisco. Ramone. I’m Cisco Ramone.”

“If you’re done,” Phil cut in, and Darcy stuck her tongue out at him. “Mr Allen was going to explain?”

“Right, uh yeah, so…” Barry, with many a stop and start and awkward scratch to the back of his head, gave a brief explanation of Flashpoint and the creation of an alternate timeline. Darcy interrupted more than once with a no freaking way but Barry pushed on. And then he stuttered over the relationship between the Darcy and Cisco from before, cheeks flaming scarlet as he did.

“I, uh, I just really wanted to know what happened to you,” he finished off to Darcy. “This though,” he gestured around them. “Never would have figured you for getting in with SHIELD.”

Darcy cracked a self-deprecating smile. “I know right? Totally didn’t see it either. But, y’know, shit happens and here we are.”

“Yeah, shit, tell me about it. Like all that stuff with HYDRA. Which, come to think of it…I thought SHIELD got disbanded because of that?”

There was a series of blinks around the table before glances were being exchanged. “Stuff with HYDRA?” Phil asked. “What stuff with HYDRA?”

“Come on,” Barry laughed. “The whole SHIELD being a front for HYDRA thing?” He stopped and at the looks on their faces let out a groan. “Don’t tell me, that hasn’t happened here right?”

“No, Mr Allen, it hasn’t. But that sounds like a conversation we need to have. Now. In my office.” Phil pushed to his feet and gestured for Barry to follow. “Mr Ramone, I’m sure we’ll be able to return Mr Allen to you shortly. There’s a few things you need to be briefed on before you can leave, but then Agent May will return you to your labs.”

With an ashen face, Phil disappeared out the door, triggering whatever blocked out the windows to fade away. A dour looking Barry trailed behind him shooting glances over his shoulder Cisco’s way until they disappeared from sight.

“So…” Darcy said leadingly, swinging her chair slightly from side to side. “Your friend is totally crazy.”

Cisco let out a snort of laughter. “Yeah, but usually the crazy drives him to do the right thing.”

“So tracking me down isn’t the right thing?” There wasn’t any malice in her tone, but the way one eyebrow was arching, even Cisco wasn’t clueless enough about woman to miss that sign that he should definitely tread carefully right now.

“It’s not _not_ the right thing,” Cisco tried. “But I dunno what exactly he thought was going to come out of it. Plus you’re totally missing Tony Stark’s pizza party which, I can’t even I’m so jealous that that’s a thing you to do.”

Darcy shrugged, the eyebrow falling back into place and a small grin curving her lips. “Well technically it’s Hawkeye’s pizza party, he just likes to throw it in Stark’s penthouse. He says it’s cause of the view, but I think he just likes watching Stark flinch every time his dog drools on something.”

Cisco couldn’t help laughing. He admired Stark, definitely, but the image was too funny.

“So, what d’you do?” Darcy asked. “Like, he’s the Flash, so you’re the..?

“Tech support,” Cisco replied. “I build the toys.”

Darcy laughed then, a joyfully loud and slightly husky sound. “Oh my gods, you’re the Stark of the team! Just without the whole flashy armor thing… And better hair.” She shot a wink his way and despite himself Cisco was attracted. She was flippant and fire and bountiful curves, but still…

“You know you’re not really the kind of woman I go for. Or at least I think I go for.”

That eyebrow was arching again and Cisco hastened to explain. “I just mean… I have the worst thing for falling for girls who could totally kick my ass, may or may not be villains, that type.” Which was probably (definitely) the wrong way to phrase it.

“Dude,” Darcy said, her face a picture of comical bewilderment as she pointed a finger at herself. “Secret agent. What makes you think I’m not a total badass who could kick your ass if I wanted to?”

“I mean…” She had a point, but Cisco leaned in conspiratorially. “I’m just not getting that vibe off of you.”

She leaned in too, dropping her voice to little more than a whisper. “Hate to break it to you, Ramone, but your vibe senses are so far off.”

And he didn’t know why, other than he felt compelled to, but Cisco held out a hand. “We’ll see about that,” he murmured. “Give me your hand.”

Darcy didn’t even hesitate to slide her palm against his, her fingers traipsing across his skin to wrap around his wrist. She was giving him an indulgent look, and Cisco was getting the idea she asked a lot of questions with just the raise of a brow.

He was getting the idea he kind of liked it too, given the humour that seemed to be playing around her lips at the same time.

Focusing on his powers, Cisco let them take over to Vibe her.

What he got was not what he’d expected.

“Holy hell!” He gasped, staring at her with wide eyes. Darcy’s eyes were wide too, only they’d changed from blue to a vibrant, molten gold.

“You have powers!” She accused.

“So do you,” Cisco shot back, still panting slightly from the clash of images and sensations he’d picked up from her. “How… I mean, that’s not… You can’t be a meta.”

“I’m not,” she said carefully, eyeing him warily like he might suddenly attack. Or just run away. It took him another moment to realise her hand was still resting in his. He thought about pulling away, putting space back between them. But there was a look in her eye, hidden away behind a blank expression but still so obvious if anyone cared to look. She was expecting him to recoil, to loathe and fear her, but she was terrified of the reaction at the same time.

Cisco’s fingers pressed into her wrist and she glanced down at where they touched.

“Power’s is cheating,” she commented quietly and Cisco flashed her a smile.

“Hey, we use what we got.”

“So you use awesome hair to get your way too?”

There was nervousness still, but relief was practically glowing from her face and a hint of a mischievous smile was back.

Cisco was interrupted from answering by a whoosh of air announcing Barry’s arrival. He had a thumb point over his shoulder back out the door but seemed to have gotten stuck looking at the very small gap left between the two of them.

Reaching out, Cisco punched him in the arm.

“Can’t believe you turned my woman into a werewolf, asshole.”


End file.
